21. Marvin standing on a pile of books to reach
his weapon of mass destruction

22. The bedraggled uniforms of our heroes after
the explosion

23. The roots that dangle off the bit of dirt
left of the planet at the end

24. Final iris-out on Porky

24½. All this in 6 minutes and 55 seconds

Part Two, Return to Space

Chuck Jones returned for more science fiction comedy on at least
five occasions after Duck Dodgers, but these later efforts never
reached the heights of Duck Dodgers, The Hasty Hare (1952),
or Haredevil Hare (1948). In 1955, Jones teamed Porky and
Sylvester for a UFO trip into space in Jumpin' Jupiter. This short
introduced the bird-like alien shown here. He turns up in several
later Jones' cartoons.

Rocket Squad from 1956 had an excellent script by Tedd Pierce that
parodied 1950s TV detective shows like Dragnet. Background
artist Ernie Nordli provided a number of imaginative designs
but the short also borrows backgrounds straight from Duck Dodgers,
as in this shot.

Rocket-Bye Baby, also from 1956, was an unusual effort for Chuck
Jones who was working without most of his usual collaborators.
Ernie Nordli provided the very UPA-like background art and Daws
Butler and June Foray did the voices (no Mel Blanc involvement!).
The story concerned an alien baby mix-up.

Bugs Bunny fought Marvin the Martian again in Hareway to theStars (1958). Background artist Maurice Noble provided a memorable
floating space city and the bird-like aliens from Jumpin' Jupiter
returned to torment Bugs.

Coming at the very end of Chuck Jones' long run at Warner Bros.,Mad As a Mars Hare (1963) boasted an imaginative design,
courtesy of co-director Maurice Noble, but the story and the
animation were much weaker than the standard in the golden days.

Reference Sources

Chuck Amuckby Chuck Jones

Chuck Reducksby Chuck Jones

Hollywood Cartoonsby Michael Barrier

Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guideby Jerry Beck

Warner Bros. Animation Artby Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald

7 Minutesby Norman M. Klein

That's All Folksby Steve SchneiderStepping Into the Picture by Robert J. McKinnon

About 21 Essays

21 Essays is my cultural history blog. In 2007, I challenged myself to write 21 essays in 21 days on a single focused topic—the classic German silent film The Golem (1920).I liked that format and so I’m reviving it here as a way of exploring favorite things (movies, books, paintings, etc.) in depth.

About the Author

Lee Price is the Director of Development at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (Philadelphia, PA). In addition, he writes a tourism/history blog called "Tour America's Treasures" and recently concluded two limited-duration blogs, "June and Art" and "Preserving a Family Collection."

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"There's something I'm finding out as I'm aging--that I am in love with the world."